Nearly everyone you talk to expresses a desire to shop locally and support small businesses rather than buying things from Amazon and Wal-Mart. Magz and I are no different. We enjoy buying things in person and from a store in our town and try to use Amazon Prime if we strike out elsewhere. An issue we’ve been encountering is that our local stores rarely have what we need in stock, and nowhere has this been more of a reality than with garden supplies.
Our Local Stores
We live in a small town of about 8,000 people. The population has stayed almost the same since 1990. We are surrounded by towns with even smaller populations – 3,500, 800, 1,900, and 2,000. To get to a town with more than 15,000 people, you need to drive about 30 minutes. Our town isn’t void of stores, though. We have an Ace Hardware, a Tractor Supply, an Agway Feed Store, and a small Wal-Mart that doesn’t have a grocery section. Those stores all carry some gardening supplies, but because we are in the center of many small towns, as well as three colleges within a 10-mile radius, these stores have to cater to a large area and a wide array of shoppers.
Ace Hardware has a small selection of seed-starting items, a great selection of hand tools, and a small offering of engine-driven equipment, with most of the in-stock items being fairly pricey STIHL products. Tractor Supply has more power tools, including affordable options, but our local store wasn’t going to have any in stock until April. We could have ordered the tiller we bought at a higher price and shipped it to our local store for free or paid to have it shipped to our house. Either way, it was going to be more expensive than what we got from Amazon.
Agway has a lot of gardening items but few tools. It’s a great store for buying top soil and mulch in bulk, soil implements like diatomaceous earth and fertilizers, and seed-starting cells, but our local store doesn’t carry any tools. Finally, we get to Wal-Mart. We generally don’t like our Wal-Mart. Because it’s a small store without a grocery section, it is limited in the items it carries, and to maximize the number of aisles, there is a less-than-average amount of walkway space between aisles. They have a gardening section with some seed-starting stuff, but ours doesn’t carry cultivators or tillers nor does it keep soil additives in stock. You can buy everything online through Wal-Mart, but that’s no better than purchasing from Amazon.
Moving outside of our town, you need to drive about 30 minutes to shop at a Lowe’s or Home Depot. When we were at Lowe’s a couple of weeks ago, we were pleased with the gardening section they had but didn’t see any gas-powered tillers. We also recently learned that some Tractor Supply stores have a garden center. The ones closest to us don’t have garden centers, but there are a few within 45 minutes that do. In the future, we’ll check one out and see how much more it carries compared to our local store. There’s another feed store about 20 minutes north of us that we want to visit this year to see if they have a better selection than our local Agway.
What to Do When You Want to Shop Local But Can’t
This was a dilemma we found ourselves in. Since we started planning this year’s garden, we’ve looked for local options when making purchases. We did end up buying our starting tray, starting mix, and gloves at our closest Lowe’s. That wasn’t in our town, but it was in person and regional. The frustration has come when looking for larger tools, such as a tiller or cultivator. The tiller we bought, an Earthquake model with a 43 cc, 4-cycle engine, is sold at a lot of stores, including Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, and Wal-Mart, but none of the stores in our town had them in stock. Menards actually had the best sale, but the closest store is about 50 minutes away, and we were unsure if we’d be able to get there before the sale expired. The only other place we looked into was Family Farm & Home, with the closest location about 45 minutes away. We love the drive, but there was no way to check the store’s stock without doing so in person, and driving that far only to learn it wasn’t in stock seemed like a bad gamble.
It’s a very frustrating spot to be in: wanting to shop locally and in person but being unable to. You don’t want to give in to online shopping for everything, even when it’s cheaper and you’re already paying for an Amazon Prime membership, but we have found ourselves with no alternatives recently. Sure, we could have paid $100 to have a tiller shipped to us from another store or waited for it to be shipped to the local store. We also could have driven to Menards or Family Farm & Home, but at that point, we’re not shopping locally. Family Farm & Home is in a different county, while Menards is in another state. In all these situations, we’d either be paying more money, waiting longer, or taking a chance on it not being in stock. Amazon was simply the best option, and I think that’s okay.
We should be allowed to give ourselves a pass when Amazon is the best option. We also shouldn’t be forced to feel bad because we don’t want to overspend, drive long distances, or buy an inferior product. I think we should look for a local option first, but if the stores in your town won’t carry what you need, it’s not your fault. We ended up buying the tiller that best fits our needs and budget, and we’re happy with it, which is the most important thing.
I try not to complain about things in my writing and won’t make a habit of this, but I’ve been processing these thoughts for quite a while now, and it’s not just with gardening supplies. Do you struggle with the pressure of buying locally or the guilt of shopping online? If so, I hope you can get some reprieve from it and feel confident when you make the best decision for your needs. Happy gardening!
One Rabbit Riot 